Martyr's Park and Some Pretty Cool Embroidery

It's only 1:30 in the afternoon and we are done in!  Little Mr. Bundle of Energy worked his magic all morning long, starting at breakfast, where he had to be carried from the buffet back to our room until he was 'ready' to sit and eat.  He did get the message, thankfully, and managed to sit and eat breakfast.  We then headed off to Martyr's Park, which is a huge park with a memorial to the martyrs of the Revolution, an amusement park, a lake with boats, and probably some other things we missed.  You can imagine how interested our lively boy was in reading the plaques devoted to dead folks from long ago, so that part of our tour was cut short.  We then headed towards the amusement park, where he and I rode an airplane ride round and round, and then off to a super moon bounce which Nathan loved.  He bounced for so long he was sweating and wanted to take off his shirt!  He played with a toddler boy and helped him climb on the equipment; very sweet.  We then stopped to feed some fish.  Nathan shared his fish food with a little girl next to him.  Next we headed off to ride a boat around the lake.  Nathan saw that the boat man was about to launch without us, and he yelled at him to wait for us!  This kid is not shy, that is for sure.  After we finished our boat ride, we were heading out of the park, and we passed a bench where a young couple was sitting together, looking at the lake.  They were near some men who were fishing, which Nathan noticed.  But as we passed the young folks, he said very loudly, "They are not fishing, they are DATING!"  Which gave everyone a chuckle.  Well, after Amy translated for us.

As we walked through the park doing all these things, Nathan was quite a handful, despite Amy explaining to him that he needed to stay next to us. He would flop around as we held his hands.  He would just stop and squat on the ground.  He ran up to an older man who was doing some sort of martial arts and asked him if he could be his apprentice!  This was accompanied by some sort of folding of the hands which Nathan apparently did in a way that indicated he thought he was the BEST!  Number 1!  The man explained to Nathan that he should fold his hands a different way, to show humility, or something like that.  I'm not sure what I missed in the translation of this event!  But Amy said it was a good lesson.

After the park, we knew we were on borrowed time.  We also knew that a certain little Someone was not going to be interested in Hunan's famous double sided embroidery, and we were right.  We did the condensed version of the tour, hit the shop, and out the door.  Marc had to actually carry him through part of the museum because he was just not listening anymore.  The embroidery is just amazing- it looks the same on both sides of the fabric, and is very detailed and beautiful.  We saw a huge, intricate piece that cost $86,000!  That's US dollars, folks! Even the very small pieces were fairly expensive, so we won't be bringing any pieces to decorate our home!  Oh well.

We are back in the hotel room where Nathan does best.  We aren't sure what is going on with his behavior; there are so many possible explanations.   His whole world has been turned upside down.  We know he has never left the town he lived in before.  There are so many new things he is experiencing right now, and we are sure it is overwhelming to him.  And since I have been privy to many blogs and books about older kids' adoption experiences, I am not too concerned.  It would be much more difficult to be dealing with a violent child, or one who clearly had never formed any attachments to other people.  He is happy, he is social, he trusts us, he is generous and kind, but we have our work cut out for us.  We are really worried about how he is going to endure a 24 hour journey home, including a 14 hour flight with two connecting flights and accompanying layovers.  We would appreciate prayers for this. 

Tomorrow, we will travel to his home for the first 9 years of his life- Zhuzhou, about an hour's drive from  Changsha. We will visit his orphanage, his foster family, and his school.  Perhaps this will help us understand better what he is processing right now.